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The US-led coalition against extremists in Syria late on Sunday struck down the most important gas plant in the country, subtly warning militants from the Islamic State (IS) to abandon to establishment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The international coalition has for the first time struck the entrance and prayer area of the Coneco gas plant. It is under IS control, and is the largest in Syria”, the monitor’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The coalition’s strikes’ also targeted IS locations in the provinces of Aleppo and Raqa.
The US and a group of mostly Gulf Arab allies had started launching strikes on extremist positions in Syria late on Tuesday, almost a month and half after IS militants started their assault on neighbor Iraq. They also struck targets in Minbej, a town to the east of Aleppo which reportedly has IS-controlled grain silos – the coalition also struck targets in the town on Saturday.
Till Sunday, strikes had only targeted IS bases and makeshift refineries used by its militants, in an attempt to weaken their financing.
The strike on Coneco gas plant’s prayer area and entrance “did not kill any jihadists, though it did injure some of them”, Abdel Rahman said.
“It appears as though the international coalition is trying to force the jihadists to leave the plant”, he added.
The gas plant, located in the province of Deir Ezzor, has the richest oil reserves in the country and is located along Iraq’s border.
The strikes could also have significant consequences on territory under President Bashar Assad’s control.
“The Coneco gas plant feeds the Jandar power station located in (regime-held) Homs province. If the Coneco plant stops functioning completely, several regime-held areas, as well as IS-controlled Deir Ezzor province will be left without electricity”, Abdel Rahman said.
Before the IS seized Deir Ezzor, local tribes and the Al-Nusra Front had agreed with the Syrian regime to keep the gas plant functioning. The regime had provided electricity to the province in exchange for the gas.
“That agreement was maintained when the IS took over”, Abdel Rahman said.